There are prior art methods and apparatus for protecting a fiber optic splitter, but the fiber optic splitters are adhered to an outer housing. When those fiber optic splitters are exposed to temperature cycling, the variations in coefficients of thermal expansion may cause insertion losses in the assembly. In order to avoid such insertion losses, an S-bend is typically included in the optical fibers at each end of the splitter. However, inserting the S-bends into the optical fibers is time consuming, difficult, and may require additional equipment. Thus, such a configuration is expensive. Additionally, the adhesives that are used to adhere the fiber optic splitters to the housing tend to degrade over time, causing further degradation of the performance of the fiber optic splitter.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a fiber optic splitter package that substantially eliminates one or more of the problems and disadvantages in the prior art. Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the present invention will be realized and attained by the apparatus and process particularly pointed out in the written description and claims, as well as the appended drawings.